It Could've Been So Different
by Dr Namgge
Summary: None of it was real. It all made sense upon reflection. But if the lie was all Sonic can remember how can he actually know if he's back in reality? Is this how it's supposed to be, or just another layer of lies? Can Sonic ever leave that life behind?
1. Comatose Host

"Urgh, my head..."

Sonic woke up slowly. His body was knackered, and he ached all over. Even his eyelids felt heavy and achy. He looked around, seeing generic plain white bedding, white walls, and a machine to his left, beeping slowly. Sonic realised he had a tube up his nose, and realised for himself he was in hospital.

"He's coming too," a nurse said, as she began paging a doctor.

"Where am I?" the hedgehog asked, knowing already that he was in a hospital, but wanting a more precise location.

"Station Square infirmary," a green duck in a lab coat said, "You've been in a coma for the last few weeks. We've been looking after you, my name's Dr Pin."

"Pin?" Sonic asked, something stirring in his memory.

"That's right," The doctor responded, "Is there anyone we can contact for you?"

"N-no," Sonic stuttered, "No, I don't think I need anyone to be, err, contacted," he said erratically as memories of a deranged doctor trying to heal his leg sprung to his mind, "In fact," he continued, "I need to get out of here right now."

"But you can't leave Sonic," Dr. Pin replied, "Not yet Sonic, you're nowhere near ready to go.

"How do you know who I am?" the hedgehog asked nervously. He was trying to muster enough energy to get out of his bed, but was failing.

"Don't be foolish," the duck grinned, "Everyone knows who you are Mr Hedgehog. You're the world famous hero."

"Then you understand why I need to get out of here," Sonic continued, pulling the pipe out of his nose.

"You can't do that!" Pin shouted, "We need to keep you under surveillance.

"I'd like to see you try," Sonic replied, as he leapt out of his bed. Sonic leapt into the air, over the duck as it tried to restrain him. The hedgehog dashed out of the ward, and made his way through the corridors. Sonic didn't realise it was the sedatives causing it, but he was running a lot slower than normal, allowing the doctor to keep up with him.

"Come back here," The doctor screamed, "You need your rest, and I won't rest until you're rested, now stop and rest you hedgehog"

Sonic kept running. He was beginning to become convinced that this wasn't an ordinary doctor, or a normal hospital. Looking around all the nurses seemed eerily familiar, all of them with the same 'Joy' name-tag, each of them carrying weird little red and white balls.

The entire place had a very confusing layout, with stairs that only led to stairs going straight back to the same floor, doors that opened up only one way, and entire corridors that served to connect to nothing. Numerous times Sonic found himself cornered, and it was only his relatively quick reflexes that had stopped him from getting caught.

"It's in your own best interests Sonic," Pin said, as he tried once again to encourage the hedgehog to stop, "You need to rest and recuperate, so your body can get back to tip top fighting shape."

"It's already in fighting shape," Sonic replied, "I'm running rings around you."

Pin didn't reply. Instead he calmly walked over to a nurses station, and pulled a a very large tranquilliser rifle, "Don't say I didn't warn you," he said, before picking up the tannoy and declaring to all "Hedgehog hunting season is now open in D Wing."

Sonic took this cue to run. He pushed he body as hard as he could, mustering speeds he dismissed as pitifully slow, he ran for the nearest exit he could find, a fifth story window. Taking a split second to decide which was likely to be worse, he curled himself up, and leapt out of the window. As smashed glass fell with him, he landed hard on the green grass bellow him. The blue hedgehog got up, his body suffering a lot for his decision to jump.

From above Pin looked out of the window to see where Sonic had landed. He spotted the small amount of debris the hedgehog had taken with him, but couldn't see the hedgehog for looking. Pin cursed himself for letting Sonic give him the slip, but relented.

Sonic pulled himself out from behind a parked ambulance. His body ached badly, but he had more pressing matters. Yet again everything was different, and Sonic had to track down Dawn, and find out just what was going on. Aside from the doctor whom Sonic recognised, but couldn't figure out where from, Sonic didn't know anyone.

The world looked slightly more normal than before, but the green sky gave away that it was far from correct. Sonic tried to pull his mind back together, after everything with Eggman, Dawn, and the Sol Emeralds, it was fairly obvious that things were a mess. It would take a mind smarter than his to make sense of what was going on. The hedgehog sighed, and clutching his left arm, he began to walk painfully slowly away, hoping he wasn't too far from someone who could give him an answer.

This time luck was not on Sonic's side, as he wandered for hours, without any clue where he was, or even if he was going the right way. None of the street signs made any sense, all of them reading in gibberish characters that made Sonic's head hurt. He had asked random passers by where he was, but they had simply told him he was in Station Square, before recommending a visit to Twinkle Park. This information wasn't to useful to Sonic, and he ultimately gave up asking.

It was getting dark, Sonic was starving, and tired. His body still ached, and he was no closer to anything he'd want to call home. Though he didn't want to, the hedgehog simply couldn't take any more and fell forwards. He pulled himself off the wet floor, and lurched slowly forwards, into a dark alley before his body completely gave up on him and he lapsed out of consciousness.


	2. Dreamt Contempt

"Wake up Sonic."

"Huh?" Sonic feebly answered as he opened his eyes, "I just had the weirdest dream."

"What was it?" asked Tails inquisitively. He stepped back and allowed Sonic room to stretch.

Sonic stood upright, taking a few seconds to look at Tails, watching as the foxes tails swayed gently in the breeze. It was a mild afternoon in the Emerald Hill Zone, and Sonic had obviously drifted off.

"I can't remember most of it," Sonic sighed, "I remember there being a insane Doctor."

"Eggman?" Tails asked.

"No," Sonic answered, unsurprised, and smiling slightly at Tails reply, "It was a duck. It was one of those 'dream-in-a-dream' things, first I'm engaged, then there was some stuff about the emeralds breaking, then it gets really crazy and hectic, before I woke up in a hospital, and get chased by an insane doctor."

"Sounds complicated," Tails replied, "But it was only a dream. No need to worry about it."

"I guess not," the hedgehog replied, "But it seemed so real..." Sonic trailed off.

Sonic looked around him at the zone. Green grass and light brown cliffs met his eyes, with a few loops and some formerly straight walkways that nobody had bothered to untwist since Eggman had twisted them in an effort to hinder Sonic's progress through the zone. A clear blue river cut the landscape evenly in half, and the scene was complimented perfectly by a clear blue sky. It was tranquil, peaceful, pleasant, and altogether the perfect place to waste an afternoon, Sonic thought. But still, there was something in this dream that was bugging Sonic.

"So what did you want li'l buddy?" the hedgehog asked Tails wondering why the fox had woken him.

"Oh!" Tails said remembering, "I just wanted to show you my newest inve-" the fox paused, "... my newest inve-" he said, before pausing again, before he began repeating himself, his head visibly shaking each time he did.

"Err, Tails, you okay?" Sonic said, placing both his hands on his young friends shoulders. Even through the hedgehog's gloves, Sonic could tell Tails felt extremely cold.

Tails kept repeating the same five syllables over and over, getting faster and faster with each repetition. Sonic acted on instinct, and assumed Tails to be some sort of advanced android, and assumed it would soon self destruct. He'd seen it often enough, both on TV, and in dealing with Eggman, the fox was going to explode.

So it came to Sonic's surprise when the Fox just stopped talking and moving altogether. Tails stood motionless, vacantly staring forwards, his arms outstretched at his sides. Sonic looked on concerned, this was not usual behaviour for robots.

"Tails, can you hear me?" Sonic asked, waving his hand in front of the foxes vacant stare. The fox didn't answer. Sonic looked to his friend, and panic filled the hedgehog's mind. Tails' fur was slowly slipping away, to be replaced by nothing but a three dimensional outlined version of the fox. At first parts disappeared randomly, but within seconds, most of Tails' body was a wireframe image that Sonic could see through.

Sonic stood firm, "What's going on?" he asked, suspecting foul play, "Eggman, what have you done to Tails?"

There was no reply. In fact there was no noise at all. Sonic hadn't noticed it until now, but everything had fallen silent from the second Tails started to repeat himself. Even his own footsteps failed to register a sound. The only thing Sonic could hear anywhere was his own voice, and even that was beginning to sound distorted.

"What's going on?" The hedgehog shouted, "Is anyone there? Hello?" Sonic beckoned out, to no-one in particular. He began looking around, hoping to find someone. Dashing through the familiar sights, things just became weirder and weirder, as patches of ground were the wrong colour, with bright red grass, orange skies and purple flowers that Sonic knew should be yellow. Even further out entire chunks of colour were missing, becoming completely transparent like Tails had become prior.

Sonic stood on the highest hill he could get to. From there he could see further into the zone. Or rather, that was the theory, in practice half of what should've been there just wasn't there. The hedgehog estimated that only about half a mile of the zone was still intact, the rest simply gone. Even worse than this, Sonic could see the horizon, not normally an issue, but the horizon just stopped after a certain point, replaced by blackness. Through the now transparent ground, Sonic could see that the sky itself did not surround what was left of the world.

The hedgehog had no idea how to respond. Part of Sonic was convinced he was still dreaming, but he had no idea how to wake himself, and he didn't particularly want to assume that, just in case he was wrong and he spent what little time he had trying to wake up instead of saving the day like he felt he was supposed to.

Scouting the area out, Sonic concluded that there was nobody else around, and no way out of the area he was in. The Chemical Plant Zone, and the Aquatic Ruin Zone, the only two Zones directly connected to the Emerald Hill Zone, weren't anywhere near where they needed to be, and the entire coast had disappeared, leaving the water from the rivers to just vanish when it hit the border of the blackness.

After some hesitation and deliberation, Sonic discovered he could extend his body into the blackness, and whatever it was that had removed large parts of the zone had no affect on him. Bravely Sonic stuck his leg out, in a vain attempt to find something solid to stand on in the blackness. The hedgehog found there to be a perfectly flat ground under his feet. Sonic closed his eyes, and slowly put his other foot onto the blackness.

Opening his eyes Sonic found himself stood on the nothingness like it was no big deal. He took a few more steps, carefully shuffling his feet so he'd know if he stepped off an invisible cliff edge. The ground consented, allowing the hedgehog to go further and further forwards into the blackness. He took a few more steps before looking back to the visible ground.

It was gone, replaced entirely by the blackness. Sonic was all alone, and without a way to get out of the blackness. Sonic immediately regretted his decision. As he began to wonder what he should do next a loud high-pitched beeping surrounded him. Sonic closed his eyes, wincing at the sound, and collapsed to the ground, unable to tolerate the noise.


	3. Virtual Fool

"Sonic you okay?"

"My head hurts a lot, but I'll survive it. Now what on Mobius is going on?" the hedgehog answered, unable to see anything but blackness.

"Let me take that off you," a female voice replied, Sonic recognized it as Amy's. As the female hedgehog removed the helmet, Sonic could see he was in a dark and dingy laboratory. A couple of now broken robots littered the floor of the Lab, and Sonic had guessed he hadn't exactly volunteered for whatever was going on."

"What do you remember?" Amy asked him, a look of eagerness all over her face.

"Me and Tails were in the Emerald Hill Zone, when he stopped, and became see-through before everything broke apart."

"Before that," Amy snapped, "We need to know what happened before you were put in that machine," she yelled, pointing at the contraption Sonic had only just walked out of.

Sonic looked to the machine, "I can't remember," he relented, "Last thing I remember reality started to fall apart, then me and Dawn were ..."

"Dawn?" Amy interrupted, "Who's Dawn?" the pink hedgehog asked, her crossbow's trigger finger getting ever so slightly twitchy.

"I guess that wasn't real then," Sonic sighed. He tried his best to stop sounding so disheartened, not wanting to admit to Amy precisely what he was thinking.

Two more robots barged in through a hastily assembled barricade, sending a large metal desk flying into the room. Both Sonic and Amy instinctively ducked as the table sailed overhead, crashing into the wall at the back.

"We can sort this later," Amy shouted, "Right now lets get out of here!"

Sonic agreed and leapt up for the first robot. It was another one of Robotnik's simple creations, next to no armour, and limited self preservation instincts. It blindly stood there, trying to fire it's feeble weapon at the hedgehog as Sonic tore his spikes straight through the robots metal covers, and into the electrical circuitry inside, breaking it cleanly in two, causing the robot to collapse to the floor harmlessly. Sonic didn't stop, aiming his jump for the second robot, landing cleanly atop what Sonic would've called it's head. It too fell to a crumpled mess, laying in the doorway. Sonic motioned to Amy, and the pair eagerly left the room into a large two directional corridor.

"So how long have I been inside those machines?" Sonic asked, considering everything weird that had happened to him recently.

"We don't know," Amy replied, "You've been A.W.O.L for the better part of six months, but rumors of sightings have been circulating up until last week. That's why we need to know what the last real thing you remember is."

"That's the problem!" Sonic yelled, "I've no freaking idea what's going on. My furthest back memory apparently isn't even real, and every time I think 'This isn't real,' the definition of real gets changed again! So you tell me Amy, where are we, what's going on and am I finally in reality?"

Amy was stunned by the hedgehog;s outburst. As far as she was concerned Sonic had always been a bit rude, but she had certainly never seen him snap quite that violently towards her, especially when she was the one saving him."This is real Sonic," she eventually replied, "Now lets just get out of here."

"Prove it."

"How on Mobius do you expect me to do that, want me to pinch you and show you you're not dreaming?"

Sonic didn't answer but he was still annoyed. As far as he was concerned, this couldn't be real, there was someone very important missing. He didn't say anything though as he knew his immediate survival depended on getting out in one piece. Carefully he followed Amy out, noticing the occasional smashed robot, often with a couple of arrows in it's head. The blue and pink hedgehog's were tracing Amy's exact route. This felt like a silly idea to Sonic, but he wasn't in a good enough mood to mention it.

They entered another chamber, a large empty room, with grey walls on all sides, and a door either end, "Not too far now Sonic, lets go."

"Hold on a sec Amy," Sonic said, "Why haven't we ran into any robots since you freed me? Surely Eggman would've sent his troops after me, or even come after me directly?"

"Curse you hedgehog," Robotnik's voice rang out, "You've spoiled my surprise entrance," he bellowed as his craft descended from a vertical shaft in the ceiling. It was yet another incarnation of the Egg-O-Matic, covered from head to toe in spikes."

"What's your plan this time then eggy?" Sonic mocked sarcastically, "Lemme guess, you're going to bounce around this room, trying to hit me until you get stuck, then I bounce on your head a few times and you fly off?"

"Not exactly," Robotnik answered. Sonic heard a clunk as a large valve opened from where Robotnik had descended. Robotnik swerved his craft out of the way, as a second, louder clunk released a lot of water straight into the room. It splashed hard on the ground, and the room quickly filled up. Sonic began to panic, water had never been something he had been a fan of, and yet the room was flooding fast.

All the spikes on Robotnik's craft shot outwards as Robotnik hovered above the water. The room had now flooded, and Sonic was desperately holding his breath looking for some air, or more importantly a way out of the water. In his mind alarm bells were racing, and he could slowly feel the pressure increasing in his lungs as his time ran down. Robotnik cackled gleefully, continuously sending spikes inwards and outwards at the hedgehog.

Sonic narrowly backed into a corner, dodging the spikes once again. As he began to black out, his very last thought was "Where did Amy go?" before his body went limp in the water.


	4. Better Meta

"Where am I?"

Everything around Sonic started white, Even Sonic himself was white at first. But slowly and surely black began to appear, in the shape of letters and punctuation. It was a gradual stream of text, slowly describing Sonic's current predicament. The hedgehog looked at them briefly, bewildered by there accuracy.

"OK, that's creepy," Sonic said, as the words he spoke appeared in front of him, something which freaked him out further. If he could've run, Sonic both thought and read directly in front of him, he would've run as far as he could from such an unnerving and altogether disturbing display.

"Do not be alarmed," the text suddenly read, "Be calm, you have finally found reality."

Sonic's eyes widened, how did the text know he had been looking, the hedgehog thought to himself.

"I am the author," the words wrote, accompanied by a simple and quiet voice, "I know everything that's going on."

"So you put me through all that?" Sonic yelled angrily, not entirely sure where to look.

"Calm down Sonic," The author continued, "I meant you no harm, and you have my word, everything will work out fine when I'm done.

"Who... or rather what are you?"

"It doesn't matter who I am, but all you need to know is that everything that's happened, from the moment you woke up with Dawn, has been nothing short of fiction. I invented the whole thing."

"Why?" Sonic asked gruffly. He didn't enjoy being told he was being controlled.

"To entertain."

"And was it worth it?" Sonic asked, wanting to tap his foot with impatience

"I s'pose it was," The author answered, "Some people seemed to enjoy it, not just myself."

"So why are you talking to me directly?" Sonic asked, weary of just what might happen, I thought fictional characters were supposed to be unaware that they were fictional.

The author paused for a moment, considering all the possible answers to that question, and also wondering why he'd made Sonic say that, when it could've potentially written him into a corner before finally answering, "Because I thought I should tell you something useful."

"Which is?"

"Dawn _is_ as real as you are in this story. Do not be discouraged, she exists. Not in the same way you do, she's not in the comics, games, and other memorabilia, but trust me, in this stories sequel, you'd do better for knowing that she's real Sonic, even if I'll do my part making everyone convince you she never existed."

"But hang on a minute," Sonic replied, "Why are you telling me this? If you're writing the story of my life, why give me a spoiler?"

"I'm not, you'll have forgotten all of this as soon as you leave here. The other people reading this, will remember it. They'll know that Dawn doesn't exist.

"You mean she does." Sonic countered.

"No, I mean what I just typed. Dawn is not real, never has been never will be."

"But you just wrote it, I can still see it here up a few lines. You wrote 'Dawn is as real as you are. Why are you lying now?"

"Think rationally Sonic, what do I stand to gain from lying to you? This is all purely for the audiences benefit now."

"There must be easier ways of doing this though, surely?" Sonic asked, still not entirely convinced by what was going on. If the man speaking to him was correct, then everything Sonic did, and would do was predetermined, which made Sonic wonder, why, if that was the case, why was Sonic asking so many questions and being so untrusting when a true author would just write Sonic into agreeing with whatever said author wanted. These thoughts puzzled Sonic, and he also realised where betraying him as they were appearing in the text on the white that both he and this author character could read.

Sonic decided the best approach would be to stop thinking. At the very least, he thought, like this his thoughts wouldn't betray him, and he could just try and observe and gain some insight. Ultimately, as Sonic had experimented during his time here, he had very little control, and was all but at the mercy of the author.

"Okay then, I give, you're writing everything I'm doing, going to do, and have total control over my life in whatever reality you're concocting," Sonic relented, "What happens next?"

The author began to answer, but his voice was silenced by other voices. Sonic's eyes suddenly felt very heavy, and his entire body was beginning to go limp. He also noticed a small pain in his arm, like somebody had poked him with a tiny pin.

"I've got him," came the first voice, "He might be out for a little while, but when he comes too he'll be a lot calmer."

"Good, though I want to know how he got hold of that pen," replied another voice, "and clean those walls off. Last thing we need is for that to trigger somebody else.

Sonic briefly opened his left eye. It weighed a tonne to him, and he could just make out a corridor he was being dragged along. The details where blurry as his vision was a haze, but he could just make out a few people in lab coats at the far end. Sonic tried to move, but was simply too tired, and found he'd used what little energy he had left keeping his eyes open.


	5. Madness Sadness

"Have you calmed down?"

"Yes, very much so," Sonic replied sarcastically. He always hated these moments, they took away from his life As far as he was concerned, he was content to live his life in his fantasy. But the medication almost always pulled him out of it, and reminded him that he was stuck in the Station Square Asylum indefinitely.

"Look, Sonic," the warden said softly," We've made some great progress here. We've made you realise that you went off the deep end, and you come to be accepting that now don't you?"

"Yes," Sonic sighed. He really hated these meetings. He just had to sit it out for a while, then the pills would wear off and he'd be able to get back to his real life, and help save Mobius.

"Is there anything you'd like to tell me Sonic?"

"No Warden Robotnik," the hedgehog answered. He didn't feel too much like playing along now, wanting to get back and get some answers about what was going on with the world. He needed to go back, he needed to figure out why everything kept constantly getting reset. This was abnormal, even by his own mental standards of normal. "Will that be all?"

"For now, yes," Robotnik answered, "You can back in with the others. Don't forget you're scheduled to see the therapist at two forty five today."

"Of course not," Sonic nodded.

With that he left the wardens office. The medication he had been injected with would only last another few minutes, and he was escorted to the main functional area where everybody else was. Sonic had only really seen this room a couple of times, usually he'd spend a couple of minutes watching everyone else before he could get back to the _real _world that was apparently imaginary in this, his deluded imagination. Sonic remembered the first time he'd seen this building, panic had stricken him, now he accepted it was harmless, and just one of the things everybody went through sooner or later.

Sonic watched the others in the room. Amongst them he saw the fox who thought he could fly, the armadillo who didn't believe he existed any more, a hedgehog who was convinced he was a cartoon character and a male rodent who was convinced he had been turned into a female bat. Generally the time spent here wasn't so much unpleasant as it was annoying, and it distracted from Sonic's real purpose. However, everybody in the real world had assured him not to worry about it, but Sonic couldn't help it.

But there was somebody new today. Sonic could see her in the left corner, though nobody else was giving her any attention, not even the overly hyperactive bee. Sonic looked at the lady, she was muttering something, but Sonic couldn't make out what. He edged closer, trying not to alarm her, or attract the attention of the men in white coats who stood at the edge of the room, ready to inject anyone who acted a bit violently with there needless full of "Stay-in-the-dream juice" as Sonic called it.

He stood next to the female cat, and watched as a small ball of fire erupted in her hand, before it extinguished itself, having burnt all the fuel to be found around it.

"How did you do that?" Sonic asked, slightly alarmed.

"Do what?" the green cat asked quietly.

"You made a flame appear!"

"No, 'fraid not," she relented, "Shame I was really close that time too."

"I know what I saw"

"Yes, because I can trust the vision of someone who's institutionalised.

"What's your name?" Sonic asked, curious about this new member of the crazy club.

"Dawn," she replied, "and you?"

"S-Sonic," the hedgehog stuttered, slightly taken aback The world began to distort in Sonic's vision. The walls of the room began to melt, as Sonic instinctively realised the medication was wearing off, and this world as loosing it's grip on Sonic.

"No, not yet?" Sonic yelled, as his vision slowly blurred. As he looked to dawn she had changed from green to red, and her figure had become a gassy looking blur. Her facial features had distorted making her look much more threatening, and she looked like she was scowling. She now appeared to float around the area, disturbing Sonic greatly to see.

"Dawn, I need to know something!" Sonic shouted, "Is this real?"

Sonic never heard Dawn's answer. The entire world had collapsed, and he was back where he began. It was the all too familiar checker-board patterned sight of the Green Hill Zone. For once, Sonic didn't want to be here. He wanted to be back where he was.

"Great, now how do I get back?" Sonic asked aloud.

"Get back where?" echoed a familiar voice. Sonic turned around was immediately surprised to see himself looking back. He looked at his double, then looked at himself. His gloves looked different, and his fur was now black. Sonic ran his hands over his spines, while looking at his body as best as he could. Finally he caught a reflection of himself in a nearby river. There was no doubt about it, Sonic now looked exactly like Shadow.


	6. Troubled Double

"Who are you?"

"My name's Sonic the Hedgehog, in case you'd forgotten Shadow," Sonic's doppelgänger answered.

"That can't be," Sonic replied, "I'm Sonic."

The double sighed. Sonic could tell this person, whoever he was, was getting annoyed by this. The hedgehog looked at his double, it was a perfect copy, from the buckles on the shoes to the bright green eyes, and even the way his ears would flinch ever so slightly every once in a while.

As far as he could tell, Sonic was the exact double of Shadow too. Something at the back of Sonic's mind said that this new imitator was actually Shadow, but that very same something also said that Shadow wouldn't relent or admit it, and thus Sonic decided to play along, and humour his impersonator.

"Perhaps you can fill me in on something," Sonic eventually said, "My memories fuzzy, how did I get here?"

"Couldn't tell you," the double replied, "You were here when I got here. You sure you're okay Shadow?"

Sonic bit his lip, inside he was beginning to get annoyed by being referred to as Shadow, but without any proof he was going to have a hard time passing for Sonic here. Either way, Sonic thought, he had bigger things to worry about, and he had to get to the bottom of everything that was going on.

"I'm fine," Sonic eventually answered, "But I've got business to take care of. See you around, faker," Sonic replied darting of on hover-skates. Sonic had to admit to himself that it felt good calling the imposter a fake, and Sonic was actually enjoying the run, even if the leg motion required for it was completely different to what he was used to. Still, it came to him naturally, and something in the back of his mind had told him he had done something like this before, less than a week ago, but the newly blackened hedgehog couldn't figure out just what exactly had inspired that thought.

Dashing off towards the ruins of the Marble Zone Sonic began to trace his thoughts. He needed to think hard, everything was a blur of confusion, and constant changes. The hedgehog had no idea what was going on any more, and he felt as though he had lost the source of things. "Think, Sonic, think," he said aloud as he ran, "Where did this all begin? What was I doing when it started?"

"The emeralds!" Sonic suddenly realised, "It began when the emeralds broke!" Sonic kept running, dashing through the Marble zone like he had countless times before, leaving the destination to auto-pilot, and trying to figure out in his brain just what exactly had happened. In the distance sat the entrance to the Marble Zone, but Sonic was too busy seeing things in his mind as he re-traced his steps to notice the what was going on around him.

"Okay, trace your steps," Sonic continued, "The world went insane, then before that it was run by Eggman. What was before that?" he asked himself, as his memories clouded up further and further, "I was in a GUN facility, and I was interrogating someone, but who?" Sonic remembered, surprising himself with his own words.

Sonic drew a blank. He couldn't even see a face. Everything before that was a blur too. Sonic sighed and thought hard. Whoever he was interrogating must've been someone important, because the memory, as blurred as it was, was brining up bad feelings in the pit of Sonic's stomach. Sonic sat down amongst the brickwork, staring at the patterns in the ceiling. Small green spirals, carved into the purple marble, It was needlessly elegant and complicated, and Sonic had guessed it was here before Eggman had been, they looked like time was spent making them, and Sonic knew Eggman didn't have time to waste on these sort of things.

"Why can I remember the distant past," Sonic asked, "but not anything recent? I can remember stopping Eggman's machines numerous times, but I can't remember what happened two weeks ago."

"Okay, lets look at it differently," Sonic continued to himself, "What's the most recent thing I remember before the gap?" Sonic thought for a moment, he could remember all the attempts to save the Death Egg, he could remember the stuff on the Ark, and the things with Perfect Chaos. The hedgehog continued forwards with his memories, remembering countless battles against Eggman, and his numerous friends.

"The time with the emeralds!" Sonic said, with another realisation, "When Eggman tried to hypnotise the world, but he was stopped by Kintobor." Sonic kept running, dashing through the zone and avoiding the dangers. Even though Eggman's traps had long since been cleared, the place was still ancient, full of unsafe ruins that threatened anyone foolish enough to climb on them with a long drop into a waiting pit of lava.

Nevertheless, the hedgehog pressed on, his mind began piecing it all together. Kintobor was in the emeralds, working to stop Eggman's plans, and in doing so he was pulling the emeralds into new Warps of Confusion.

With this realisation Sonic watched as the entire world began to melt in front of him. The hedgehog panicked as first the walls, followed by the floor melted away from him, pulled by some greater force than the hedgehog could comprehend. Sonic looked all around him, and even saw that his own skin was melting, or rather the appearance he had of Shadow was slipping away, revealing Sonic's true image underneath it. Sonic looked around him, as everything was slowly but surely replaced by a black nothingness that stretched out infinitely. This nothingness felt familiar to Sonic, it felt as though this was natural, and as if he had been here before. Sonic calmly smiled as the last of Shadow's image disappeared leaving him alone in the nothingness, waiting for the arrival of Doctor Kintobor, and with it some explanation as to what had happened.

"Welcome dear fellow," beckoned the all too familiar voice of the Monsters of Chaos.


	7. Nothingness Obsess

"What are you doing here?"

"This is our home," The monsters answered, "Has been for a very long while."

"Where's Kintobor?"

"He's safe," the monsters continued, "As are you. We're all here, but we're not together in any form bar communication, and nothing you can do will harm us, or vice versa."

The monsters spoke as a group, several distinct voices all speaking near simultaneously, creating a bizarre echoy harmonic on the sound they produced that Sonic found both creepy and annoying. It ran through him, seeming both insincere and also slightly uninterested in what they were actually saying.

"So why am I here?" Sonic asked, keeping his guard up. He had an immediate distrust of these creatures, and wasn't going to take everything they said at face value.

"This is just the nexus between worlds," the monsters replied, "You'll leave soon enough."

Sonic's mind erred on caution, even if what they said about being incapable of harming him was true, they were being a little bit too nice, it was suspicious in the hedgehogs mind. In the same way Sonic knew he needed to know more about what was going on, Sonic knew the Monsters of Chaos were the last people he wanted answers from, and while he couldn't figure out why, something about them was making him angry and eager to fight, it was something that only ever stirred up in him normally when Robotnik was up to his old tricks.

An awkward silence befell the nothingness. This wasn't the silence of nobody being around, but the silence of Sonic wanting answers but unsure whether or not he should ask the questions he wanted to. The hedgehog had no choice but to wait out the time, and hope that upon his exit he'd get more answers.

Eventually boredom got the better of Sonic, "Why are you being so polite?"

"Why have we done anything Mr Hedgehog?" the faceless voice of the Monsters of Chaos asked, "We are all motivated by the same desire, to get everything back as it once was."

"So you're responsible for everything then?"

"We merely put everything into motion. We aren't responsible for what you or your friends did, but we are indeed the ones who started everything, gave you what you started with."

"But," The voices continued, slightly different in tone, "We did have Dawn watch over you, guide you towards the best choice as far as our plan was concerned."

"Yet you still did it all yourself," the voices finally finished, in the same tone as before.

"So you took my memory from me?" Sonic asked.

"It was necessary. We needed you to co-operate, and that was the only way."

"You realise I'll get it back!" Sonic yelled, "I'll remember what's happened and I'll stop you again."

"You haven't stopped us the first time," the Monsters of Chaos taunted, "You weren't even close to stopping us. We destroyed your world, reshaped it as we saw fit, and convinced the entire population that everything was fine. Yes, you undid that, but what has it actually got you Sonic? You're no better than when you started, you still don't have the emeralds, and you still don't know what's going on?"

Sonic froze. As far as he could tell the voices were right. But since Sonic didn't know for sure one way or the other he stubbornly refused to accept that he had been defeated.

"All you did Sonic," the voices continued, there echo still disturbing Sonic as he listened to it, "Was move things along. You caused us a few setbacks but after all of it we got what we wanted. We may not be free now, but the second you're out of here we can leave to, then it's just a matter of choosing the right moment, and crushing the Servers of Chaos once and for all."

"See, that's how I can beat you," Sonic said confidently. Unable to see anyone, Sonic could only wonder just how exactly they would take this news. Without a face to judge for himself, Sonic could only hope it would annoy them how he wanted.

"You don't understand," the voices said smugly, "You don't get a choice. Any second now you will exit from this realm and return to the real world."

As the voices finished there sentence an overwhelming sense of nausea hit Sonic. He clutched his stomach, occasionally looking up and seeing swirls of colour appearing out of the darkness. The blackness of the nothingness was edging away, and Sonic could only wince as he recalled in his mind what he had just been told. Sonic tried to fight his return, but with no solid ground to stand on, Sonic was getting no friction, and was thus powerless to resist the pull of reality.

With his last breath in the darkness, Sonic swore blindly that he would not allow the Monsters of Chaos access to the real world. He knew deep down he had to, even if it would cost him everything. Sonic closed his eyes once more, his head now severely spinning from the disorientation.

His eyes opened again, his head now calm. He was stood in the middle of a road, cars either side of him yelling at him to get out the way. As Sonic looked on bewildered, he felt a firm grip on his arm pulling him towards the kerb. It was Dawn, and she looked worried.

"Are you okay Sonic?" she asked, as the hedgehog tried to make sense of his new surroundings. Finally noticing the Casino he realised he was in Station Square, not too far from the train station that led to the Mystic Ruins. Sonic looked around him, an uneasy feeling about him as he was lead to a nearby bench, urged to sit down by the green cat.

"I'm fine," Sonic answered, "Just sorta zoned out for a moment there."

"Well be more careful," the cat scolded, "Hedgehog's don't do well against cars."


	8. Real Deal

"What were you thinking?"

"I don't know," Sonic answered, his mind confused, "I wasn't paying attention," he confessed.

"I'd noticed," Dawn answered, "You've been doing that a lot lately," she said, the concern in her voice obvious to those around her, but lost on the bewildered blue hedgehog. "What I meant was what was going on in your head this time?"

"Truthfully?" Sonic answered, "It's a long story. Lets get somewhere a bit less public and I'll tell you."

The pair headed into a sheltered park on the outskirts of the city centre. The hedgehog and the cat sat underneath the shade of a very tall, and slightly withered palm tree. Dawn sat looking at Sonic, her legs crossed, while Sonic laid back, his legs straight, and his body learning directly against the tree.

"So spill," Dawn persuaded, "Just what were you thinking?"

"Okay," Sonic answered, "But you should know I'm not entirely sure how much of it will make sense. I've lost track of it myself after everything," he said, his tone a bit more alarmed than Dawn had initially considered.

"What is it Sonic?" Dawn asked, now sitting more seriously, worried about what her friend was about to tell her.

"It started a few weeks ago," Sonic said, "It was one night, and I had an awful nightmare about an obsessive pink stalker..."

For the next three hours, Sonic told her everything he could remember, covering all the details about his double, everything concerning how he had died because of Eggman's attacks, all the stuff about him being declared insane, and everything that simply seemed far too out there to make sense. Though he did neglect a few of the more emotional details, he could see just by saying it, he was upsetting Dawn, he told her everything.

"But what does that have to do with you stopping in the middle of the road?"

"That's the moment I returned Dawn," Sonic replied.

"Huh?"

"I don't know when I left, one evening while asleep I think, but the last thing I remember is destroying the world, then I found myself in the middle of the road."

"Oh Sonic," Dawn sympathetically said as she hugged the confused blue hedgehog, "You sound like you've been through a lot."

"Yeah," Sonic mumbled sheepishly, "And to be honest, I'm still not entirely sure I'm back," he sighed.

Dawn paused for a moment, stroking her chin with her hand, "How do I prove this is reality?"

Sonic shrugged "I've no idea."

"Maybe you just need to accept that things are how they should be?"

Sonic looked at Dawn surprised. That was all anyone had said to him throughout all of this. He had been told so may times to accept things simply as they were, regardless of what he thought, and still the only counter he had was a simple 'why'.

The hedgehog said nothing. Dawn asked the hedgehog what he was thinking, but Sonic just ignored the question, saying he was fine. In his mind he was going over things, trying to decide for certain if he'd got it right. Everything looked the same. The trees were normal, the people seemed normal, Dawn was certainly how he remembered her, and not a cyborg-winged-cat as he had briefly known her. She still seemed to love him, as he loved her, but even with ninety nine percent right, there was still one percent wrong, and Sonic didn't want to risk that last lousy percent.

"Sonic, you alright?" Dawn asked, "You've been quiet for a long time now."

"Huh?" Sonic replied, "Sorry; was miles away."

"Did you go back?"

"No, I meant I was lost in thought, I hadn't gone to another reality."

"You sure you're okay?" Dawn enquired.

"I don't know," Sonic answered, "How can I ever know? I went through countless different versions of reality, and had things changed around me constantly. How can I possibly ever know when everything is back as it should be?"

"You won't," Dawn relented, "I don't think if anyone went through something like that they would be able to make sense of it, let alone understand why, or tell if they ever came back where they left."

"Here's what I know Sonic," Dawn answered, "This world needs a Sonic the Hedgehog, and you're here now. This might not be the world you left behind, but it's the world you're at now, and you could do a lot worse than living a life here."

Sonic looked at the cat, "I think you're right," he relented, "I've been running for too long. If I make it home, great, if I am home, fantastic, but for now maybe I should just be content with what I have?"

"Right," Dawn said, "and if the monsters come back, just let them take the world." the cat chuckled.

Sonic glared at the cat. He knew that he'd just gone through something very important, even if she didn't think it. But he wasn't going to make a big deal of it, he was much too tired, and would simply let the joke slide. After all, Sonic had destroyed all the Sol Emeralds, and unless something else came along to start changing reality, there wasn't much else he could do but enjoy his life here in this world, regardless if it was his or not. After all, it still had chilli dogs, Tails was still one of his closest friends, and he could still play through all his favourite video-games.

* * *

"Did it work?"

"Yes Doctor Robotnik," the robot answered, "It worked perfectly. The implant in the hedgehog's brain is running at peak efficiency."

"Good," the Doctor smirked confidently, "Now phase three of our plan can begin, he smiled, as he sat looking gleeful at seven multi-coloured gems, more commonly referred to as the Chaos Emeralds.

* * *

**_The End_**

I hope you enjoyed this short drabble. It was the leftover remnants of my last story _Unreality _written up as a story, so I apologise if the narrative doesn't make much sense. If you've read this without reading Unreality, I hope it wasn't too confusing (in a bad way) for you.

.net/s/6308932/8/It_Couldve_Been_So_Different


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